Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been the cornerstone of the gaming industry for a number of years. Generally, the popularity of such gaming machines with players is dependent on the perceived likelihood of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine. Players are most likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of these machines. Therefore, owner/operators of such video machines constantly strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the machine operator. Accordingly, in the competitive gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games, or enhancements to existing games, which will attract frequent play by enhancing the entertainment value and excitement associated with games, and by increasing a player's perception that they have a better chance to win when playing a game.
In the prior art there are two types of games. There is the standard 3×5 “five reel slot” machine where all cards or slot symbols are randomly dealt/displayed and there is no player skill. The other type has a level of player skill; an example of this type of game is one in which there is an initial deal/display of cards or slot symbols from which a player selects cards or symbols to be held and the non-selected cards or symbols are replaced with new cards or symbols.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is the concept of multiple pay lines that exceed the number of actual horizontal rows of a matrix of cards or slot symbols displayed on a gaming/slot machine. In such poker/slot machines the pay lines include not only actual horizontal rows of cards or slot symbols being displayed but the pay lines also include cards or slot symbols in positions in more than one horizontal row of the matrix. Thus, some pay lines zig-zag between displayed horizontal rows and the number of pay lines exceed the actual number of horizontal rows of cards or slot symbols being displayed in the matrix.
In such prior art a typical gaming device might have a 3×5 matrix (3 rows by 5 columns) called a “five reel slot”. This matrix easily and clearly supports three horizontal pay lines through the three rows of the matrix. To increase the number of pay lines the gaming industry has created pay lines that zig-zag between the rows of the 3×5 matrix while still picking only one symbol per column in the matrix. With this technique there are 35 ways of choosing five symbols, one from each column in a 3×5 matrix.
However, in this prior art all pay lines are fixed and are selected in a fixed order and never change during the course of play. The only flexibility a player has is how many pay lines they select to be played and the pay line multiplier. Such prior art is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,377 issued Nov. 25, 2003 to E. Moodie.
For one example, a player places a number of wagers and for each wager another pay line is selected to be played. In addition, a wager multiplier may be selected for the pay lines. Following the player's selection of the wagers and multiplier, an initial deal of cards or display of slot symbols is made in a first horizontal row of the matrix from which the player selects one, some, or all of the cards or slot symbols in the row to be held. The held slot symbols or cards are reproduced in the same column of all other horizontal rows in the matrix. The non-selected cards or symbols of the initial deal are discarded. A second and final deal is made to replace the non-selected slot symbols or cards in the first horizontal row and to fill the empty card or slot symbol positions in the other horizontal rows in the matrix. The player only has control over the number of pay lines selected to be played and the pay line multiplier, and not over the order in which they are selected. All pay lines are fixed and never change during the course of play. Such a prior art game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 issued Oct. 20, 1998 to E. Moodie.
Thus, there is a need in the gaming art for a new gaming option that provides dynamic selection of pay lines during game play as determined by events occurring during the course of game play. These dynamic events may be: (a) player initiated events associated with game play that dynamically determine either or both the number of pay lines and the path of pay lines through a matrix of slot symbols or cards during the course of play of the game, and (b) game actions automatically initiated during the course of game play that dynamically determine the path of pay lines through a matrix of slot symbols or cards. Such dynamic selection of pay lines during game play have the potential to make a game more interesting.